Why is China’s Wang Yi hosting four Asean ministers in Fujian but meeting them individually?

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is holding one-on-one talks this week with his counterparts from four Southeast Asian nations that have been most vocal about Myanmar’s political crisis, suggesting that the worsening post-coup upheaval will feature among other bilateral issues. Dylan Loh, an assistant professor of public policy and global affairs at NTU, suggested that the one-to-one meetings would likely feature a mix of regional issues as well as bilateral ones.

“The meetings may not necessarily take place under an official Asean event, [but] China clearly has Asean in mind,” he said, noting Beijing’s approach was always to engage the bloc collectively but also its members individually.

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